The present invention relates generally to the packaging of fibers, and more particularly to compact packaging of high power fiber lasers that further require controlled thermal gradients and removal of waste heat.
Fiber lasers of the known art are generally packaged by wrapping the fiber lasers around individual spools. The individual spools are commonly the same size and are placed side by side, or adjacent one another for packaging. Further, the spools are generally circular in shape and are limited in size by the minimum bend radius of the fiber lasers. Unfortunately, the individually wrapped spools of the known art cannot be used in systems that require a large number of fibers in a limited amount of space due to the excessive amount of volume consumed by the spools. Additionally, the volume inside the spool often goes unused, which further reduces the volume efficiency of the spools.
Laser systems comprising hundreds to thousands of fibers are currently being designed for applications requiring extremely limited volume consumption. For example, laser systems for weapons applications in military aircraft must be capable of being packaged within avionics or weapons bays, which are further limited by the size of access doors. Further, laser systems are being developed for telecommunications applications, which also pose similar volume restrictions. Accordingly, the volume consumed by the individual spools must be minimized in order to meet the requirements of newer laser systems.
In addition to limited volume requirements, high power laser systems further require control of temperature and thermal gradients within the fibers to minimize laser power losses. High power fiber lasers generate a significant amount of heat that must be removed from the system. In systems of the known art, waste heat is generally removed by a continuous duty cooling system. Unfortunately, the continuous duty cooling systems are relatively large and expensive and run continuously to remove the waste heat from the fiber lasers, although the fiber lasers often only operate intermittently.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a laser fiber packaging system that significantly reduces the amount of volume consumed by the fibers and related equipment, and which is further capable of controlling thermal gradients between the fiber lasers and removing waste heat.